Hauls~

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year!

In the year end frenzy I did spend some extra cash I shouldn't have, but I do like the outcome. Let's take a peek at what I got for myself:

Lush Relax Take A Bath box with 3 products, a bathbomb, a body butter -I think- and a.....dunno what it's called, I wasn't able to identify it even tho there's a booklet included which shows all the products you might find in the box =.=

Just a minor e-bay shopping for Kose oil absorbing papers.

After falling in love with Juvena's On The Move cream I decided to try their other products too, thus I bought a (Christmas) coffret of day and mini night cream of Juvena.

My very first encounter with the highly raved brand....2 (+1 free gift) Sigma brushes =)

All I can say before actually using them is....LOVE the feel of these bushes!

Instant eyeshadow! For those who suck terribly at makeup application. (Sorry...) It looks fun so I couldn't pass it on and never try it XD I have a feeling it's gonna look horrible on me XD

Lierac Phytrel bust firmer gel and Micro-abrasion smoothing cream. After the first use I already have a positive opinion, but we will see in a few weeks of usage ;)

Not shown is an Yves Rocher Inositol Végétal eye cream.

And finally, some Swissological samples =)
That's all. Hope I will be able to avoid negative reviews =)

Have a very successful year of 2011!

Kose Softymo White Cleansing Oil

I have a LOT of reviews waiting for posting. I'll try to do some on Sunday and.....Sunday. Then I go home for a long weekend. So during that week no reviews.

Today, I write about Kose Softymo White Cleansing Oil.

I wanted to try a pure oil cleanser after falling in love with Shiseido Beauty Voltage Make Off. It was an oily gel and LOVE!

I was broken a month ago (when I bought Kose), so I had to exclude Shu Uemura and DHC oils. I'm still wondering if it worths to shell out that much money for a bottle (mineral) oil when I can find an equal for less.

I have not tried them myself, but judging from the raves, Softymo White is far from them. Oh, no! Wait! I did try DHC Cleansing Oil! (I got a load of samples of it LOL) And that was more than enough for a thorough trial. Ah, that's another post, so back to Softymo!

Kose Softymo White Cleansing Oil can remove make up and dirt effectively. It removes excess horny layer with melanin and makes your skin transparent and soft.

Where should I start?

The smell.

It's horrible! It must be the mineral oil....anyway, they should have put in some lemon or flower or whatever ingredient! Even if it just softened the smell, it would have been better! It's so disgusting when I scrub my face!

I need 2 pumps for my face, and 1 extra for my eyes. I rub it on dry skin for about a half minute, maybe one minute (depending on the amount of makeup I had on), emulsify with a little water, rub it more and rinse it with water.
And here comes another personal problem! With Beauty Voltage I got used to open my eyes to see if there was mascara left on my lashes. I could do it without stinging and being blinded. With Softymo it's impossible. I know no normal human being would open her eyes while using makeup remover, but I was free to do it, dammit!

Now I have to rub the mascara off carefully, coz the oil gets into my eyes and stings lightly if I don't hurry! Not to mention opening my eye! It's impossible. Even if I were to tolerate the stinging, I wouldn't see anything! The oil makes this white haze on my eyeballs so that I can't see anything. *grrrrr* When rinsing, I need to pay extra attention to this, spending some time on getting it out of my eyes.

The feeling it leaves behind is.......tight. Stripped off of excess oils....nothing is left behind. Only dry and warm skin, needing hydration.

Cleansing power is good though. No trace of makeup/dirt. But I'd suggest using toner and other skin care steps you usually do.

Oh, yes. The WHITE label! You think it helps fighting melanin production, thus helps the anti-freckle products, right?

I highly doubt so!

It's just some oversized letter for better advertising, which I fall for too.

It does nothing! If stripping your skin off of the half-dead skincells, maybe the top layer too is considered reducing melanin, then this might work. IF!

The bottle is inconvenient if you want to take it with you on a travel becoz of the pump.

Anyway, for the price ($7.60 on Sasa) this amount (230ml) is a good deal. But there are better cleansers out there....

Kose Esprique Precious Liquid Eyecolor Stylish

Another type of make-up product I'm not a fan of, but still ended buying....2 of it. A blue and a golden one. I've run out of my previous glitterish blue/silver+gold shadows. One I had to dispose coz it was too old *sniff*

Well, the whole color range is seen above, but mostly the 4 shades below can be found.

I got mines from Bobodave. I guess. My mind tends to fail me.....It costs $23 there and they carry each color! YAY

I wore 2 looks this week, both with the same color. First is the most simple. Only the golden shade on my lids.

Close up without flash in natural light.

No primer, just Esprique Precious (GD002), Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes 0L and Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara.

With flash.

Under eye it's the gold from YSL Opium Legendes de Chine.

I said I don't like liquid eyeshadows. I had horrible experiences before. Those I tried creased like hell and wouldn't blend...blotches here and there. Yikes.

But this one from Kose performes well. No blotchiness, no creasing in the summer heat. It's perfect for my taste. The applicator is the same sponge end like on lipglosses, and I can handle it without making mistakes.

And now the other look:

I was a bit worried how Precious would perform, since there was a base shadow appiled under. Would it blur the base ending with my blobby eyelids? No, it was ok.

Well, you can see the finished look. The base color is the deep purple/plum from YSL Opium Legendes de Chine above the lashes. See it got a bit drawn upwards with the liquid color?

Eyeliner on my upper lids is Kanebo Kate Gel Eye Liner (BK-1), on the lower waterline it's MUFE 0L. The lower lids have an all over streak of gold from the YSL palette from above, topped with pink in the inner side and I put a bit of purple to the outer part too. I hope this explanation made some sense =DDD

Actually I like this one better than the first look.

Shiseido Haku Melanofocus EX Whitening Serum & Kose Medicated Sekkisei Whitening Emulsion

This was my first whitening serum in my whole life and made me an addict to them! To tell the truth i've only tried 2 products so far, one is a serum the other an emulsion. And this beats Kose's Medicated Sekkisei Whitening Emulsion! As it says Sekkisei is medicated, so i trusted it and had high expectations...shouldn't have. I'm not saying it's crap, coz it is not! It's good....just not THAT good as Haku's Serum.
I like the packaging, pure and stylish. Simply lovely!
It claims to suppress melanin production and doing so brightening your skin.
As i started to use it, it took 2-3 days and the results started to show up. I have freckles on my cheeks and nose during summer thanks to the sun, and some pigmentation blemishes near my jawline (tiny little mole lookalikes) which i hate. So after 2 or 3 days the freckles started to fade out, that i found amazing. Back then i didn't know those blemishes weren't moles that i like having on my skin, but pigmentation flaws, so i didn't use the creme on them. Stupid me!
Now i have Sekkisei which works slower, and didn't do much to those stubborn flaws. If i run out of this bottle, i want to swithch back to Haku....Sometimes first choice is the best choice.
Although i have a Kanebo Impress brightener too...gotta try it sometime soon!
Any idea which product should i put my hands on next?